The votes are in and most of the press conferences have been watched: now we can choose our best Fantasy Premier League (FPL) players for Gameweek 1 ahead of Friday’s deadline.

The final selection is partly based on the Scout Squad consensus picks but budgetary constraints and injury updates from the pre-match pressers are all factored in, too.

We line up in a 5-3-2 formation this week and, as ever, are limited to £83.0m for our first XI.

CHANGES FOR 2022/23

While the maximum starting XI budget remains the same, there has been a slight change to how we nominate substitutes.

Our Scout Picks bench was previously made of players not just serving as bench fodder or to make the budget up to £100m but rather to give some alternative, viable options who don’t cost as much as some of the names in our line-up.

However, the people have (just about) spoken – and we will indeed be price-capping our substitutes, too.

Given that we’ve opted for a 5-3-2 this week, that decreases our starting budget to £82.5m.

GOALKEEPER

Nick Pope (£5.0m), nominated by three of our Scout Squad panel, gets the nod between the posts this week. While last season’s form could end up being this season’s chip paper, there’s not a great deal else we can go on until we’ve seen a ball kicked in 2022/23 – and Newcastle did finish the last campaign with four clean sheets in their last seven home fixtures. Improvements in the Magpies’ underlying defensive numbers under Eddie Howe are worthy of note, too, and the Tynesiders have further bolstered their backline with the acquisition of not just Pope but also Sven Botman (£4.5m).

DEFENDERS

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